Hello! I'm pretty new to speedrunning in general and new to this game as well. I was wondering how much time is lost by using the NTSC-U version compared to the others, particularly on the Any% category. That's the version I'm planning to use and I wanted to know if it was that bad of a loss. I couldn't find this info anywhere else, I just heard that it was slower. I apologize if the answer can be found anywhere here and I just didn't look hard enough. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

NTSC-U only loses about 15 seconds to PAL and NTSC-J for Any%. The difference becomes more significant for longer categories since NTSC-J loads Delfino Plaza faster. I don't think it's ever been fully timed, but you're looking at around a minute for 120 Shines.